Athena's Flute
by SamanthaKathy
Summary: Annabeth is on a quest to retrieve Athena's Flute.


**Author's note: originally published 18 December 2010 as part of the 2010 Yuletide challenge for Emily.**

In the blaring summer heat of the early afternoon, Annabeth stood on the shore of the lake at Camp Half-Blood. In front of her was a rickety old speedboat and not for the first time that day she silently cursed her mother. Sure, her new quest had been presented to her as easy and an honor, but Annabeth was certain her mother had set the condition that she do it alone because she disapproved of her relationship with Percy. Besides, she wanted to get on with redesigning Mount Olympus, since she hadn't had much time for that in the past year.

"Annabeth, wait up," came the familiar voice of Percy from behind her.

Annabeth turned around, both glad for the delay and annoyed by it.

"You're not planning on joining me, are you Seaweed Brain?" she asked.

"Would you let me?"

She could tell that despite the joking tone, Percy was very serious. If she said yes, he'd come with her. Unfortunately, the Oracle, in the form of Rachel freaking Dare, had been very clear that this quest was hers alone. So although she dearly wanted to say yes, she mutely shook her head.

"I figured," Percy said with a sad smile. "Still, I can at least get you better transportation than that."

No sooner had Percy said that, than Blackjack landed gracefully on the beach. Annabeth pulled Percy in for a kiss, showing him her appreciation, before shoving him back again and climbing on top of the black pegasus. While Percy was still dazedly staring at her, she urged Blackjack into the sky.

"To Erytheia!"

PPPPPPPPPPP

After several hours of flying, Erytheia finally came into view. The setting sun cast a red glow over the lush green meadows where the red-skinned cattle of Hades grazed. Annabeth was thankful she didn't have to grab one of them. Besides not wanting to anger Hades, she would never have gotten the cow off the island, whether she came by rickety speedboat or on the back of Blackjack like she did now.

Blackjack landed on the tin strip of beach and Annabeth slid of his back. While happy she'd made the trip so quick, so was still glad to be on solid ground again.

"All right, Blackjack, you stay here," she said. "I'll just go get the flute and I'll be right back."

The pegasus nodded his head, then ambled off into the shade of some trees that were on the edge of the beach. Assured that Blackjack would wait for her, she grabbed her Yankees baseball cap and put it firmly on her head. She was going in!

PPPPPPPPPPP

In the end, her mother was right, it wasn't a difficult mission. Menoites and Eurytion, the cattle herding monsters, never even noticed her. They were busy with driving the cattle closer together, so as better to guard them for the night.

The only problem came when she had to sneak into a little shack. It was the only structure on the island and Annabeth hoped the flute she was after was kept there. Unfortunately, the shack was guarded by a two-headed dog. The moment she came closer, the seemingly sleeping dog jumped up. Both of his head turned unerringly towards Annabeth.

Even though she was invisible, the dog was tracking her. It must have caught her scent. It hadn't barked yet, but Annabeth knew it was only a matter of time. She grabbed her knife from her backpack and inched closer. The dog started growling with one head and snapping at her with the other. Annabeth took a deep breath, then charged.

Although the dog could track her reasonably well by smell, the fast movement prevented him from accurately determining where she was. He leaped, but missed her completely. The doorway was now free and Annabeth went in. She rummaged through the cabinets, flinging all kinds of odds and ends aside until she came upon a simple, wooden flute. She grabbed it, stuffed it in her backpack and made to get out of the shack.

Unfortunately, the two-headed dog had returned to his guard position at the door. All four of his piercing yellow eyes were peering into the room, the black of the night outside hiding the dogs black body. Annabeth gripped her knife a little tighter. The doorway was the only way out of the shack and the dog seemed to have learned from its mistake. It wasn't budging from its position, so she would have to fight.

She darted forward, stabbing the dog in one of its flanks. One head yelped in pain, while the other one made a grab for her. Fortunately, it still couldn't see her and therefore missed biting into her arm by inches. The attacked had served its purpose in getting the dog to move aside and Annabeth was able to squeeze past it out into the open, where she started running.

It didn't take long for her to reach the beach where Blackjack was waiting. She pulled the baseball cap from her head, startling the black pegasus in the process, and stuffed it in her backpack.

"Come on, Blackjack, we've got to go," Annabeth said.

In the distance the angry yowling of the two-headed dog could be heard and Annabeth didn't want to still be on the island when the resident monsters came to find her. Blackjack seemed to share her opinion, as he readily took flight as soon as she was on his back.

Once they were up in the air and away from the island, Annabeth let out a whoop of excitement.

"Yeah, I did it! To Lincoln, Nebraska, Blackjack, so we can finish this and go back to camp!"

PPPPPPPPPPP

Blackjack set Annabeth down in a small park close to Nebraska State Capitol, where she was supposed to deliver the flute to. It was clear that there was no way he could stay and wait for her. It was quiet now, but soon there would be enough people that would notice him. The Mist would make sure Blackjack appeared as a normal horse, but a normal horse lose in the park would still draw too much attention.

"Go on back to Camp," Annabeth said. "Tell Percy I'm fine and will get back to him as soon as I can."

Blackjack nodded his head and took flight, while Annabeth walked the short distance to the State Capitol. As she came near, she admired the building. Bertram Goodhue, the architect, had truly created a beautiful monument, especially considering building started in 1922 and took ten years.

Thankful for the early hour, the building hadn't been open for more than ten minutes, she made her way to the vestibule. The theme of the room was "Gifts of Nature to Man on the Plains" and currently there was a showing of several rare statues of woodland creatures of legends there. Annabeth took a moment to admire Hildrethe Meiere's Guastavino tile dome, with the sun depicted in the middle and the agricultural products of Nebraska in a larger circle around it. The details were just astounding and in her head Annabeth could see mosaics depicting the Battle for Olympus on the ceiling of the new council chamber, depicting moments form the battle. The defeat of the Minotaur by Percy on the Williamsburg Bridge and of course Luke's sacrifice.

But that was not why she had come here. Shaking herself free from her visions of a new Mount Olympus, Annabeth walked over to the only statue of a satyr. Her mother had told her to place the flute in the outstretched hand. That would be the end of the quest. Annabeth wasted no more time and placed the flute in the statues hand.

She was ready to leave, eager to get back to Percy and to start sketching some of the mosaics she wanted in the council chamber of the Gods, when a scrunching sound was heard. She quickly turned around, grabbing hold of her knife in the process, although she kept it hidden for now. The sound came from the statue, which was slowly coming to life. It took about a minute, but at the end, where there was once a statue, now there was a very much alive satyr.

"What the…" Annabeth said.

"Ah, much better, thank you my dear," the satyr said.

"Who are you?" Annabeth asked.

"Why, I'm Marsyas," the satyr said.

Of course, Annabeth thought, she should've realized that. Marsyas, the satyr who'd found her mother's flute when she'd thrown it away. He'd been punished after challenging Apollo to a music competition and winning it. Apparently, her mother had decided Marsyas had been punished enough and had taken advantage of the fact that the Gods were still too busy with the aftermath of the Battle for Olympus to pay any attention to a simple, little quest.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, dear, I have to go practice. I doubt I'm up to scruff when it comes to playing and Apollo has had a few thousand years of extra practice time. Tata!"

Annabeth looked at the satyr's retreating form with bemusement. Apparently, he was planning on challenging Apollo again. For his sake, Annabeth hoped he lost. But really, what a crazy old satyr did was none of her business. She had a bus to catch back to New York and Camp Half-Blood. Percy would be waiting for her and to be truthful, a quest wasn't nearly as much fun on her own. And oh, all right, she'd admit it, if only to herself. She kind of missed Seaweed Brain already.


End file.
